16 Blocks (2006)

Remember Rajkumar Santoshi’s 2004 blockbuster “Khakee” where Amitabh Bachchan and his fellow police officer are given a task to escort a dreaded terrorist from a small town to the big city. While bringing him to the court, they realize that corrupt government ministers and other police officer are out to kill the ‘terrorist’ who is actually the victim.

In 2006, Richard Donner who is credited to direct the “Lethal Weapon” series, Superman and Omen directs Bruce Willis in “16 Blocks”.

Bruce Willis plays Jack Mosley, a tired, drunk, aging cop assigned with escorting a black small time crook, Eddie Bunker, played by Mos Def to the court. The distance from the jail to the court is just 16 blocks when they realize that what stands between the court and them are corrupt police officers. The story is very similar to “Khakee” and it may be that Hollywood has copied from ‘Bollywood’ for this time. Atleast the Central idea is common here.

The movie is supposed to be a thriller set on the busy street of New York but the pace of the film is just about fast. The storyline does offer a scope for thrills and rides but the movie does not offer any. The action is kind of been there, seen that. The climax is a big letdown. In an action thriller, the pace should be such that it should have your blood racing (Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Speed etc) but you don’t feel the excitement of watching an action movie.

Bruce Willis plays Jack Mosley and almost sleeps walks through the film. He is shown to be an uninterested cop out to complete his duty and taking an extra task of transferring the inmate to the court. The trouble is he seems uninterested in the movie itself. He tires, he pants, he huffs, he puffs and looks pretty much drunk. If that was the original designed character, then he does a pretty good job but it leaves the viewer much to be desired.

Mos Def plays Eddie Bunker, a small time criminal who has witnessed a crime and knows a bit too much. He talks mostly in the film and is highly irritating. I don’t know if it was the sound system but I could not get what he was talking for the first 30 minutes. Some of his dialogs are lost in the nasal voice.

The rest of the cast include David Morse who plays the corrupt officer. The rest of the group does not much to do except run around and shoot at Bruce Willis.

All in all a slow paced thriller and action, the movie does not offer anything new and could easily pass as B-Class action flick. Can be seen if no other movie is on.

Rating: 4/10